Transforming a College: The Story of a Little-Known College's Strategic Climb to National Distinction

by George Keller

Book Overview

Forty years ago, North Carolina's Elon College was struggling to attract students and remain solvent. Today Elon enrolls students from 46 states and 40 foreign countries. Since 1988, it has erected a new library, student center, football stadium, fitness center, and science facilities on its 500-acre campus. The number of applications has risen 40 percent since 1995, and SAT scores of incoming students have improved by 98 points. Elon has emerged as one of America's most desirable colleges. How did this transformation happen? What can other colleges and universities learn from Elon's remarkable turnaround? Taking a new approach to the study of higher education, George Keller examines the decisions made by Elon's administration, trustees, and faculty to transform a school with a limited endowment into a top regional university. Using Elon as a case study, Keller sheds light on the high-stakes competition among America's colleges and universities - where losers face contraction or closure and winners gain money, talented students, and top faculty.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801879892
• ISBN13: 9780801879890
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

ELON HAS ELAN!

This book is a little gem, like the university it is about. As a college and career coach, I am recommending this book to my clients. George Keller, a prominent educational strategist, tells the story of Elon's meteoric rise over the past forty years from a small, very regional North Carolina college to a "hot", sought-after university with a national reputation, viewed as a model of hands-on student-oriented learning. I was utterly amazed by the vision and determination of Elon's administrators, trustees, alumni and faculty to create such radical change in an educational institution. This book certainly should be read by any parents or students interested in Elon University. But it also offers a broader message to families of college-bound students: Educational institutions, like all organizations, are not static, but are moving targets. They are growing, maintenancing, stagnating, or dying, but they are not standing still. That said, one can never freeze a college in time. Parents need to update their views on colleges to help support their children's choices. A college that was accessible to above-average students "back in the day" may be out of reach today, because of baby-boomlet compeitition. A college that was not even on our generation's radar screen may be a rising star today. One such rising star is Elon University, whose story is told so compellingly by George Keller. Kris Hintz, Position U 4 College LLC

My son goes to Elon!

For a parent -- whose son goes to Elon University (Class of '08) -- this is a fascinating read. It should be very interesting (required reading?) for any private college administrator, potential student/parent, or major donor (it desperately needs to build endowment). Last year there were 9,000 applicants for a Freshman class of 1,200. Elon is indeed a former "hidden gem" college that has definitely ARRIVED!